Meet Our Newest Intern: Hannah
Hi everyone, my name is Hannah and I’m excited to share that I’ve joined the Book*hug Press team as a publishing intern!
I had a full-circle moment the other day in the office. Seeing a copy of A by Andre Alexis on one of our bookshelves sent me back to my first year of university. I was just settling into the Foundation Year Program at the University of King’s College, which seemed to me the perfect mixed-bag learning experience for a girl whose only sure direction was that she preferred the arts to science. It was a scary time, and I picked up A, a novella that was small enough to read between classes and grant me a sense of accomplishment! Its nuances surely went over my head, as did the ethics (Aristotle?) that we were reading in class at the time, but I felt at least confident in my love of reading.
It was during these early weeks at King’s that I thought about pursuing publishing as a career. The possibility followed me through my B.A. in English and Contemporary Studies, and later it snowballed into a full-blown professional goal as I wrapped up my M.A. in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory at McMaster University. Then I decided to do some character development; I started to pay attention to publication details any time I picked up a new book, and a few weeks ago I smiled when I saw the Book*hug emblem on A, one of my first university reads.
If you’re familiar with Book*hug you’ll know that we aim to publish works that amplify culturally diverse and underrepresented voices. I carry with me from my academic work the practice of re-centering who and what we (the publishing industry) consider to be inherently valuable. I feel very lucky to be working for a radical, independent press that resists the homogenization of community through a diverse catalogue of literature, and I am excited by the ways in which the novel form is being imaginatively readapted to better represent our ever changing cultural landscape. For this reason, I’ve recently been drawn to hybrid/experimental memoirs like Antiman (Restless Books), Dream Rooms (Book*hug Press), and A Flat Place (Penguin Books Ltd).
Many thanks to Hazel and Jay for taking a chance on me, and to Sabrina and Reid who have been the loveliest of office mates thus far! I am really looking forward to connecting with the larger Book*hug community in the coming months.
